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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
High winds and blowing snow have temporarily shut down winter road operations, leaving some truckers "marooned on some portages", said Ron Near, director of winter road operations for the Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto joint venture.

A Super B-train drives along on the secondary winter road on Qyta Lake in early March. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

Near said whiteout conditions in the Lac de Gras area suspended road operations starting Monday around 2:35 p.m.

With the storm moving south toward Lockhart Lake, which is in the middle of the 300-km plus winter road, "what we attempt to do is try to get all of the trucks into a camp prior to the storm getting too bad," said Near.

"So we started to do that, funnel trucks into Lockhart camp and hold trucks at the mine site to see if the storm was gonna clear quickly."

The weather only worsened on Tuesday. As of 3 p.m., about 100 trucks continued to wait out the storm at Lockhart camp, the main stopping point of trucks travelling on the winter road.

The camp is similar to a truck stop and includes amenities such as showers, laundry and a full kitchen. Another 130 trucks were waiting in Yellowknife to be dispatched North and an unknown number of trucks were being held back at each of the three joint venture mine sites - Ekati, Snap Lake and Diavik.

There was no word on how many truckers were stranded at portages, but Near said his company had radio contact with all the drivers and could get food and water to them if needed, given a break in the weather.

"No one is at risk right now," Near said.

Near said the road closure could continue into today.

"With what we're looking at now, the storm could go another 24 hours plus clean-up. It's unknown how long it's gonna last right now," he said.

This has been the biggest and longest lasting storm of the season, said Near, adding, "We've been really lucky this year ... It's actually gone very well."

Near said truckers' safety was "the number one priority" and that the company keeps an eye on weather conditions and begins planning for storms before they hit.

"We try to determine when storms are forming, how quickly they're forming and when they'll be hitting specific regions of the winter road ... If we suspect that there's going to be a big blow we just start funneling trucks into the safe locations on the road," he said.

Near said the temporary suspension of operations will likely delay the official closing of the road by a few days.

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